


Not Just A Platonic Friendship, is it?

by thegoodfic



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:53:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23214340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegoodfic/pseuds/thegoodfic
Summary: Claire’s had a shit week. Neil’s ignoring her to prove that he doesn’t have favourites and they’re both hating it.She’s at the bar. He rocks up too.He drives her home, but he doesn’t leave.
Relationships: Claire Browne/Neil Melendez
Comments: 26
Kudos: 167





	1. Stood Up

**Author's Note:**

> I just feel like there’s not enough of the Melendaire content I need okay.

Her first glass was empty by the time she picked up her phone to check the time again. 

8:14. 

44 minutes after she was supposed to meet her date. 

Her last text had gone unanswered. In fact, it looked like he hadn’t even opened it. She didn’t really want to meet with him, but she’d told herself she’d make more of an effort to date this year and Morgan had convinced her she needed someone, something, in her life besides work. 

8:15. 

“Can I grab another gin please?” 

She picks up her glass and motions to the bartender. 

“No show?” He asks, filling her glass.

“Apparently so.”

She takes a sip and sets the glass down on the bar. It had been a long day. 

Nothing went wrong, but nothing went right either. 

Morgan got picked for the next lead surgery and Melendez had been ignoring her all week after a complaint was made about favouritism. All they’d been doing was running together. It was therapeutic, she thought, for the both of them. 

“Drinking alone on a Tuesday night isn’t the best look for a promising young surgeon,” came a familiar voice. 

Neil Melendez pulled up the chair beside Claire, as the bartender handed him a beer. She didn’t have to look up to know who was there.

“Promising? Nah, my attending can hardly even look at me, let alone refer me for surgeries... or teach me anything,” she said taking a gulp of her gin. 

“Ouch.” 

The last bit might have been a step too far, but in that moment she didn’t care. And she knew deep down he didn’t really either. 

“Claire, I’m sorry, I know I haven’t outwardly been your biggest fan this week, I just can’t risk it. It’s not good for either of us.”

She didn’t look at him, or respond. But she could feel him next to her and she knew he was right. 

He had been favouring her. But he didn’t know how to stop.

“If it helps, it’s been really hard,” he said quietly. 

She glanced at him. He looked tired and a little beaten down but she didn’t miss his subtle smirk. Like he was laughing at himself for admitting it to her, hoping she hadn’t heard, but kind of hoping she did. 

“So what are you doing here alone?” he asked. 

She downed the rest of her drink and before she could put the glass back on the bar, Melendez waved the bartender back to refill it for her. 

Maybe it was the two gins on an empty stomach and no sleep, but she rolled her eyes and said “what do you care?”

“Okay, I probably deserved that, I can leave if you want.”

“I got stood up, okay?” She said finally turning to him. 

“Oh Claire, I -“

“It’s fine. I didn’t even want to go on this date anyway, I just said I would so Morgan would get off my back about being single and sometimes... lonely- just about being single. It’s fine.”

Neil tried to hide his smirk into his beer as he took a mouthful. 

“I’d have thought a good looking young woman like you wouldn’t have any troubles in the loneliness department,” he joked. 

“What, are you offering to help?” She shot back. 

Claire’s mouth went dry and her hand froze around her glass. She shouldn’t have said that. This was her boss. Her incredibly attractive, attentive and sometimes, she swears, flirty, boss. 

“I’m sorry, that wasn’t - I should go,” she said, putting her wallet out to pay. 

“I’ve got it,” Neil handed his card to the bartender and told him to put it all together. “Let me take you home. You can’t drive and I, I feel guilty about the way I’ve treated you this week.” 

He reached out and touched her arm, the callouses on his fingers brushing against her skin. She hadn’t expected his hands to be so rough and goosebumps grew on her arm. She wanted to protest but just didn’t have the energy. Claire picked up her bag and followed Melendez to the street. 

In the passenger’s seat, her elbow resting on the centre console just a couple of centimetres from his. A part of her wanted to slide it over to touch his but even a couple of drinks in, she wasn’t that stupid. They drove in silence until he pulled up outside of her apartment and offered to walk her in. 

“You’re putting too much pressure on yourself Claire,” said Neil as he put her bag down on the bench for her. 

“You’re going to be a great surgeon, regardless of who you’re in surgery with. You don’t need me to teach you how to be a good surgeon. Lim is fantastic, Andrews is also a great teacher.”

She sat at the stool opposite him, watching as his helped himself to two glasses and some water. It felt easy, Neil moving around her kitchen as if it belonged to him, pouring her a glass of water without even thinking about it. They’d become good friends outside of work and he’d helped her a lot. She liked to think she’d been helping him too. 

“Thanks,” she said quietly, taking a sip. “I just, I hate that a totally normal, platonic friendship has suddenly turned into workplace rumours and having to avoid each other.”

He looked at her, disappointed, but knowing. She was right, they were having to avoid each other because of rumours and he hated it too. But the rumours had started and the rules were clear. He was her boss, she his resident - they had to be professional.

Melendez walked around the kitchen bench and took the seat beside her. She looked exhausted, but not drunk. Like her body was too tired, too over it, to bother absorbing the alcohol. 

It was quiet, they sat silently beside each other, their shoulders just touching, forearms so close resting on the bench that their fingers could have intertwined at any moment. But neither moved. 

“It’s not just a totally platonic friendship though, is it?” He said, staring at his hands on the bench. 

Claire could have sworn her heart came to a halt and her stomach had fallen out onto the ground. 

“I- I don’t know,” she whispered. 

She could feel his eyes on her but couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Does he think she’s in love with him? Does he think she’s some sad, desperate young resident obsessed with her hot boss?

“Sorry,” he said finally. “I guess not. Maybe I’m just seeing things that aren’t there. Feeling things on my own.”

“Feeling things?” she frowned, turning to face him. 

He took a deep breath. 

“I don’t know Claire. I just - I think maybe I was starting to see our friendship as, more than platonic. And that’s kind of terrifying.”

Claire was silent, looking at him, her eyes ran over all over him trying to figure out if this was some kind of cruel joke.

“I’m sorry,” said Melendez, breaking the silence. “I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s inappropriate. I’m your attending.”

He stood to leave but as he turned away he felt a hand on his arm, pulling him back. She was still sitting there, staring at him with half a smile on her face, the other half was a mix of confusion and fear. He couldn’t help himself. He took her face in his hands and leant down to kiss her, hard and she sighed as her arms twisted around his neck, kissing him back with more feeling. As she stood he took a couple of steps backward until he was leaning against the back of the couch, Claire still kissing him, her chest relaxing into his as his hands slid down her back. She felt his fingers on the skin between the top of her jeans and the back of her shirt, chills running up her spine. His fingers slipped up under the fabric of her top and she caught herself smiling into his lips, willing his hands to move further. 

“Is - is that okay?” He whispered.

She nodded, planting her lips back on his, her tongue edging at his bottom lip. He took a deep breath as their kisses deepened, his hands moving across her back until his fingers touched the strap of her bra under her shirt. She unlocked her arms from around his neck, running her fingers down his chest, tugging ever so slightly at the bottom of his white shirt, where it was tucked into his pants. 

But she pulled away, put her hands on his chest to stop herself. 

“We can’t, Neil,” she whispered. “You’re my boss.”

His hands still on her back, heart beating faster than he thought possible. She’d never called him Neil before, but then again they’d never been in quite this situation before. He bit his bottom lip, staring at her.

“We can stop,” he said. “But, I really don’t want to.”

She sucked slightly on her top lip, weighing up the pros and cons of what they were about to do, but all it did was make him want her more. He pulled her closer and started kissing her neck, she bent her head to the side, letting him and letting out a sigh. 

“Neil, don’t -“ she stuttered. 

“Don’t what?” He said into her neck. 

She let out another breath, as his lips moved over her. 

“Don’t you dare leave a mark,” she smiled, grabbing his face in her hands and kissing him on the mouth. 

He smiled into her lips and stood back up straight as she took a step backward, out of the living room and into the hallway. He was still kissing her as she led them to her bedroom door and twisted the handle, falling into the room and onto the bed. Her boss was on top of her, his shirt finally untucked from his tight pants. He laughed at her as she struggled with the buttons, sitting up on his knees to undo them himself. 

“Honestly I was about to just tear them off, but I figured your shirt must be expensive,” she smiled. 

The his full chest and shoulder tattoo was on display as he slipped his arms out of his sleeves. God, he was even hotter than she’d pictured. She reached up and traced the tattoo with her fingers as he leant back down to kiss her. 

“I’ve always wondered what the rest of it was underneath,” she whispered. 

“I’ll tell you the story about it later,” he said.


	2. Suction

“You’re awfully chipper today, Dr. Browne,” remarked Reznick as the pair walked into the emergency room.

“Just thrilled to be working the E.R with you today, Dr. Reznick.”

“Male, early 20s, came off his motorcycle,” called the paramedic. 

“He’s conscious, but he’s lost a lot of blood. Suspected fractured ribs and left ankle.”

The two young surgeons took over, checking the patient as a nurse paged for Doctor Melendez. 

Claire hooked the patient up to the machines and checked him over for brakes, confirming three ribs were fractured and his left ankle had been almost completely crushed. 

Melendez rushed over, standing opposite Claire watching the patient and his residents. 

“He’s got three broken ribs, looks like his ankle is almost completely crushed,” declared Dr. Reznick. “I’m worried he’s punctured a lung.”

“Good work, Dr Reznick - get him cleaned up and over to imaging,” Melendez nodded. 

Without even so much as a glance in Claire’s direction, the surgeon followed Morgan and the patient down the hall. 

***

Claire was on suction, while the team repaired the patient’s ankle. 

Melendez hadn’t said a word to her (other than “suction”) in the six hours they’d been on shift. She didn’t think he’d even looked her in the eye. 

So when the clock turned to 9pm and the other residents had gone home, she wandered up to Melendez’s office, walking through the door without knocking. 

“We had sex, right?” She said. 

“Excuse me?” 

“You and me, last night, at my house. You were going to drop me home, you came in, you told me you thought our friendship was more than that - and then you kissed me,” she spelled out. 

“Claire, not here -.”

“We did have sex, did we not?”

He stood up from his desk and stepped towards her, looking around the floor to make sure no one was in any of the joining offices. 

“Yes, Claire, we did have sex,” he said quietly.

She sat on the back of the couch as he walked towards her. 

“Do you wish we hadn’t? Is that why you couldn’t even look at me today? Why you put me on suction, for a simple broken ankle I could have done myself in my sleep?”

He touched her arm, but quickly pulled back, shoving both hands in his pockets and looking at the floor.

“No, I don’t wish we didn’t have sex. I’m... I’m really glad we did.” 

He half smiled at her, but she stared at him, blank.

“I just knew that if I even so much as looked at you, in front of the others, I’d blush like a school kid and want to kiss you right then and there.”

Her cheeks had gone red and she looked at him smiling. 

“You could have at least texted me, or something. Told me you weren’t really ignoring me.”

“Yeah? And how obvious would that have been? God forbid Morgan, or Shaun for that matter, saw your phone.”

He was right. He had to make her mad at him all day, other wise their cover would most definitely have been blown. They were already under a microscope, but now they really did have something to hide. 

It took all her self control not to kiss him there in his office. Wearing the same white shirt he’d worn yesterday, because despite setting an early enough alarm, he wasn’t left with enough time to go home before work. 

“You’re right, I know,” she conceded. “It just sucks.”

“It does. And it’s going to be even worse now. There’s no denying I have favourites after last night.”

“And this morning,” Claire smirked. 

“Yes. And this morning..... It’s late Dr. Browne, why don’t I take you home?”


	3. Simply, Sleep Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fluff. Just pure, 100% fluff. That's all it is. It's cute. They're tired and cuddly and smooshy and it's been a long week. 
> 
> We've jumped forward a little bit, but with a flashback in the middle. 
> 
> There'll be more where this all came from.

She’d just closed her eyes when she heard a key slide into the lock and the door open slowly. She shifted from her position on the sofa and closed the report she’d been reading, setting it on the coffee table next to an empty red wine glass. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, guilt all over his face. 

Neil dropped his keys in the bowl by the front door, placed his briefcase on the ground and slipped off his suit jacket, hanging it over the back of the sofa Claire had been curled up on for the better part of four hours. 

She tilted her head back to look at him and smiled as he stood behind her, bending over the back of the sofa to kiss her forehead gently. 

“I didn’t think I’d be so late but then Morgan wanted to discuss her next lead and then someone came into emergency and I had to go lend a hand and I just - ugh, I’m sorry,” he rattled as he wandered into his kitchen. 

Claire’s dirty pasta bowl sat in the sink and a (now cold) pot of spaghetti bolognese was on the stove, where she’d cooked it to have ready by 8pm, when Neil’s shift was supposed to have ended. 

A blanket still wrapped around her shoulders, she stood from the sofa and followed him into the kitchen, wrapping her arms around his waist while his dinner heated in the microwave. He pulled her close, arms around her neck and chin resting on the top of her head. 

“It’s okay,” she said quietly into his chest, squeezing him tight. 

“It’s midnight babe, you should have just gone to bed,” he told her. 

A part of her wished he’d been able to just send her a message, let her know he was running late so she didn’t worry. But now she knew he’d been with Morgan and it just wasn’t worth the risk of her catching who he was texting. Even though her complaint had been months ago now. But Claire had spoken briefly to Shaun on the phone around 10pm when he was leaving the hospital and in need of girl advice. He’d mentioned that he saw Dr Melendez sitting with Dr. Reznick in his office and wondered why Dr Reznick had strapping tape on her hands. And it set her mind at ease.

She pulled away to look up at Neil as they stood cuddled in the kitchen. She kissed him softly on the lips. 

“I feel like I haven’t seen you in weeks though.”

She was almost right, between Claire spending most of her time on Andrews’ service and Melendez working nights while she’d been on days, they hadn’t actually had an evening together in more than two weeks. They’d seen each other of course, passing in the corridors of the hospital, a cheeky wink when no one was looking and one, very quick kiss, when they found themselves alone in a storeroom. Before a nurse opened the door, looking for a fresh box of gloves for the OR. 

That’s why they’d exchanged keys so early into their relationship. So they didn’t have to wait for one to finish work, before the other headed over to their house, in the middle of the night, just so they could simply sleep together before doing it all over again tomorrow. She’d finished early that afternoon and they had plans to enjoy a home cooked dinner together when Neil finished work at 8. It made sense to just go straight to his place, it was closer to the hospital, so they wouldn’t have to wait as long between him knocking off and them finally being able to sit down to a meal together. Maybe she’d had other plans for the evening too, had he come home a few hours earlier and with any energy left at all. But he hadn’t. So she’d simply let herself into his apartment and waited for him to come home. 

Most might consider three months too soon to have access to each other’s apartments, two months really, if they counted from the night they decided this was the real deal, but it felt right for them.

———

_He pulled another bottle of red from the shelf in the pantry, popping the cork as she eyed the muscles on his arms, his back and down to his butt, covered only by a pair of boxer shorts._

_“Are you checking me out, Dr. Browne?” he winked, turning to the living room carrying two glasses of wine._

_“Dr. Melendez, that would be HIGHLY inappropriate,” she said, feigning seriousness._

_But she smiled, taking the glass from him as he sat next to her._

_“But none of this is super appropriate anyway, so I guess I could admit that yes, I was checking you out. You have a great butt, has anyone ever told you that?”_

_She winked as he smiled and leant in to kiss her, tasting the red wine they’d spent the evening sipping as they talked in his living room about everything and anything._

_But he pulled away eventually, looking intently at the young lady sitting by him, a knitted blanket over her shoulders and a t shirt of his covering everything he’d spent earlier that evening enjoying._

_“What’s wrong?” she frowned._

_“You’re right, Claire,” he breathed, dropping his eyes to the glass of wine in his hand. “None of this appropriate.”_

_He placed his glass back on the coffee table and turned away from her, sitting with both feet on the ground, elbows on his knees and face in his hands._

_“We shouldn’t be doing this. I’m your attending, you’re my resident. It’s so unprofessional.”_

_Her heart sank. She knew the last month together had been too good to be true. Sneaking around the hospital stealing glances and trying to avoid getting caught. Being scolded by him in front of other residents and particularly Dr. Lim, knowing he was only trying to cover for them and that she’d be able to sneak over to his house later that night and cuddle up to the man she no longer saw as just her boss._

_Suddenly she felt cold and naked, embarrassed that she’d enjoyed being with him so much, when she should have known this was never going to work. He’d already had two failed relationships within the hospital and she was about to become number three. The butt of all future jokes about Dr Melendez not being able to keep it in his pants at work. The young woman who fell for her boss, who was never really going to see her as anything more than a quick fling and an easy fuck._

_She pulled the blanket tighter over her shoulders, covering as much of her body as she could._

_“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, as if their whole whatever-it-was, was her fault. Even though he kissed her first. Even though he still took her home the next day, despite her offer to just forget it ever happened. Even though HE was the one who insisted she come over tonight after their long day at the hospital._

_He looked up when she stood, the sad frown on her face turned to anger._

_“Actually,” she said. “I’m not sorry.”_

_“Why is this so inappropriate? We’re consenting adults, who had a consensual, platonic friendship - until it wasn’t.”_

_He pinched his nose, closing his eyes trying to figure out what to say next and how to convince her and himself, that this should stop._

_“Claire - it’s not you,” he said. “It’s, it’s the hospital. It’s the rules. It’s society. I’m your boss, I shouldn’t have dragged you into this.”_

_“No, you shouldn’t have,” she said evenly._

_He looked at her, surprised._

_“You shouldn’t have told me you had feelings for me, kissed me, fucked me and then kept doing it over and over, if I’m just another one of your side pieces,” she told him._

_“What? Side pieces?!” he frowned._

_“Well you clearly don’t have an issue with in-house relationships, Neil,” she pointed out. “In fact it seems to be your specialty.”_

_He stared at her, shocked to hear she thought that low of him._

_“So if it’s not because of the hospital policy, it’s got to be because you’ve got something else going on and the fact that we work together is just a convenient excuse to drop me for her.”_

_Silence._

_He didn’t know how to take that. It wasn’t the truth at all. Really, he was just torn between putting his feelings for her above her career. By dating her boss, she was risking everything and he was putting it at risk for her. Even if the hospital didn’t fire her over it, she would always go on to be the surgeon that got through her residency by sleeping with the attending. She was already at a disadvantage, one of the few females in her year, let alone female of colour with next to no support network around her._

_“Claire,” he frowned. “That’s not even close to true.”_

_He stood, taking a step towards her and taking her both her hands in his._

_“I just - I don’t want this, us, to cause any problems for you at work,” he said quietly. “You’re too good to lose.”_

_At that point she didn’t know if he meant she was too good for the hospital to lose, or for him, and honestly, he didn’t either._

_She leant up and kissed him softly._  
  
“Neil, the only problems this whole thing has caused for us at work, happened before any of this even happened,” she said.

_“I don’t mind sneaking around and faking arguments and working on Andrews’ service to avoid you in the OR, if it means I get to come home to you at the end of a long day and talk about work, or not work, and figure out what’s going on in the world,” she told him._

_He nodded, smiling slightly and bringing her hands to his lips, before kissing her properly and wrapping his arms around her._

_“I think.. we could be onto something here, Claire,” he whispered into her hair._

_She squeezed him tight._

_“If that’s okay with you?” he asked._

_She nodded, smiling as she kissed him as hard as she had that first night in her kitchen when she thought the whole thing had been a dream._

_They laid together on the sofa that night for hours, Claire’s back against his chest, his legs either side of her and arms wrapped around her shoulders. Nothing on the TV, just enjoying each other. Their fingers intertwined, playing with each other’s hands, stroking arms as they talked, figuring out how they were going to get away this for real._

_———_

The microwave beeped, breaking the first real moment of silence they’d had together in weeks. Claire pulled away, grabbing him a fork from the drawer as he quickly pulled the piping hot bowl from the microwave, dropping it on the bench before the red marks on his fingers turned to blisters.

“It’s hot,” she smirked, rolling her eyes. 

“Thanks,” he laughed. He wrapped the bowl in a tea towel, taking the fork from her and heading for a seat at the dining table he rarely used. Claire resumed her perch on the nearby sofa, her chin on her arm over the armrest as she watched him try to cool down his food enough to eat it quickly and head to bed.

“How was your day?” he asked finally, between mouthfuls.

“It was okay,” she smiled. “Busy. But that’s how I like it.”

They slipped into work talk as he finished his dinner, discussing the complex heart surgery he had coming up and her patient with breathing issues who didn’t seem to have any obvious problems. They brainstormed for as long as it took Neil to do the dishes and put the leftovers in the fridge as Claire watched him from the sofa. But as soon as the kitchen was back to its usual spotless state, fatigue hit them both like a train. She stood and draped the blanket back over the sofa as he went around and flicked off all the lights. She slipped her hand into his as they made their way down the hall to his bedroom, which had become more like _their_ bedroom lately.

Already in her pyjamas, Claire climbed into what she’d claimed as her side of the bed, waiting for Neil to slide in next to her. She heard the shower running as she started to fade into sleep, smiling half conscious when she felt the bed dip beside her and a warm, slightly damp arm wrap around her waist. She leant into him, finally relaxing knowing there was no alarm set for tomorrow and they could stay like this for as long as they wanted when the sun came up in the morning. She turned her head lazily, for one last kiss as they both closed their eyes.

“It’s been a long week,” she said quietly.

“Goodnight, love,” he whispered.


	4. A Run

It was well past midday when Claire’s eyes fluttered open. Though it could have been the middle of the night for all she knew,Neil’s black out curtains really did keep the room dark. But she reached to the nightstand, carefully lifting his heavy arm from her waist as she rolled over to check the time on her phone. 

1:14pm. 

No missed calls, no messages. Everyone that needed her was sound asleep under the blanket beside her. 

“Don’t get up,” came a groggy voice. 

He reached up, barely opening his eyes, and pulled her by the waist back towards him. 

“Come back to bed.”

She smiled, dropped her phone back to where it was and rolled back to face him, snuggling into hischest.

“Morning sunshine,” she said, kissing his nose. 

He rolled his eyes, kissing her forehead softly and squeezing her. His body no longer ached and the fog in his brain was starting to lift. Incredible what 12 hours of solid sleep will do, when you’d barely napped in a week. 

They stayed in bed for another hour, drifting in and out of sleep, arms around waists and legs intertwined, soft kisses on foreheads and noses and cheeks and lips. 

“What do you want to do today?” Claire asked eventually, finally fully awake and ready to get up. But not ready to leave him. 

“I actually really need to get some exercise to be honest,” Neil said, sitting up. 

“We could go down to the track?”

“Together?” he raised his eyebrow. 

“I mean, yeah?” Claire questioned. 

“What if someone sees us?” he asked. 

They hadn’t run together in months, since Morgan’s complaint more than three months ago, it hadn’t been worth meeting up in public unless they went out of town or somewhere particularly secluded. But it didn’t mean she didn’t want to. She’d just given up on begging him to come to the gym with her, go for a walk after work with her or even sit with her in the cafeteria for lunch. 

“Neil, come on… It’s a running track. We could have gone there separately and just happened to bump into each other?”

He didn’t buy it, using the same excuse he always had - “we’re already under the microscope, let’s not give them something to find.”

Of course, they’d already been giving their bosses something to find. For more than three months they’d barely been separated after hours, had left notes in desk drawers or lockers for the other to find and hadn’t brought dates to work events, or even mentioned the idea of dating to any of their colleagues. 

If someone wanted to find something, it wouldn’t have taken much digging. 

Neil refused to let her come with him for a run that afternoon, so she sulked home alone and worked her way through the mountain of laundry that had piled up on her bed, ignoring Neil’s texts and calls later that evening when he offered to pick up Chinese food and bring it over to her. 

She was mad. A little at him, mostly at the universe for never letting her find a guy that was perfect for her. One who treated her like a princess and who she could love with all her heart and sing about it at the top of her lungs. Why was she being punished with the right guy at the wrong time, in the wrong situation

So when he showed up on her doorstep at 7:30 that night, a small take away plastic bag in one hand and bunch of pink peonies in the other, she kissed him on the doorstep before letting him in. Her own way of letting the universe know that this dreamboat of a man was hers. Even though there was no one in the corridor of her floor, the kiss hadn’t been behind a closed door and so it was the smallest of wins. 

She decided after that she’d always greet him in the doorway, before they shut the universe out on their relationship. Taking back just a little bit of control over her own life. 

After a few months, they started working working together again. No longer under the microscope of a favouritism complaint, after Dr Lim decided Neil was right and that there was nothing improper going on between him and Claire. It meant they had an excuse to get lunch in the cafeteria again, brush hands as they passed equipment to each other, or sit up late in his office surrounded by plans and paperwork. And though they weren’t often alone when those moments passed, it didn’t matter, because they were together and he could stare at her as she worked and she could watch him as he operated. 

Eventually, when she asked out of the blue, Neil nodded and agreed they probably could go for a run together. It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon, after they’d both worked a night shift and woken up in Claire’s bed around 2pm. 

He hadn’t run that fast in months. He tried desperately to keep up with his girlfriend as she teased him, telling him if only he’d been training with her for the last 6 months, his cardio fitness might be better. He bit his tongue instead of telling her thought he HAD been training cardio with her for the last six months. 

Sweaty and exhausted, but thrilled to actually be together in fresh air, they sat under a tree at the park to cool down. 

“You’re getting better, Dr Browne,” Neil told her, between exhausted breaths. 

She smirked, looking over at the oval as crowds of people ran, jumped and laughed together in the sunshine. “It’s all this running on my own Dr Melendez. I haven’t been held back by anyone.”

He laughed and swatted her arm lightly before standing, reaching his hand out to help her up. 

She hadn’t felt this free in years. Happy, finally. Her mental health in check and her heart slowly being mended as if a surgeon was stitching it back together. She accepted his hand up, dropping it as soon as she stood, resisting the urge to intertwine their fingers as she followed him back towards the car park. 

Baby steps, she told herself. 

She was on a high and nothing was going to ruin her moment that day. 

But later they’d both learn that Morgan, heading down to the track for a personal training session, had seen them climb into the same car and sneak a quick, reckless, kiss as Neil turned on the ignition. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's short and I'm sorry about that! But the next chapter is written, it just needs fine tuning. 
> 
> Hope you're all surviving isolation - don't forget to wash your hands and stay the fuck home.


	5. Six Months

“How long?” Audrey asked, stepping into Neil’s office, closing the door behind her. 

“How long what?” he frowned. 

He’d only just started his day, hung his jacket on the back of his chair, opened his laptop and pulled out the scans of a 14-year-old girl he was going to have figure out how to save from a tumour that was slowly paralysing her. 

“Come on, Neil,” Dr Lim said. She wasn’t playing games, her tone and her face serious as she crossed her arms. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Audrey,” he said. “How long, what?”

Except he did. He knew, that she knew. But playing dumb was the only thing he could think of. He and Claire had been so god damn careful over the last six months that the prospect of someone finding out before they were ready to tell them hadn’t even come up in conversation. Of course, they’d discussed how they’d pitch it to the hospital board - telling them they’d managed to work successfully side by side for so long that it didn’t matter anymore and that no complaints about them had come up since the initial accusation. No one was the wiser the whole time it was happening, so why should anything change?

But they hadn’t expected to be found out. 

Tight lipped, Dr Lim took a step forward. 

“You and Claire, Neil. Someone told me they saw you two, kissing, yesterday afternoon,” she said.

He stood, feigned a laugh and crossed his arms. 

“They must have seen wrong,” he frowned. “There’s nothing inappropriate going on between me and Dr Browne.”

But she didn’t buy it and he knew it. 

“So you’re telling me, on the record, Dr Melendez, that there is absolutely nothing improper going on between you and one of your residents?” she quizzed. 

“Yes. Absolutely. Nothing, Audrey,” he said. 

She nodded and turned to walk away, Neil’s heart rate still in overdrive as he sat back at his desk, waiting for Audrey to leave before he messaged Claire. 

But Dr Lim stopped before she opened the door and turned back to her colleague, her friend and ex boyfriend. 

“But, off the record, Neil,” she said, her voice low and face softened. “When did it start?”

He bit his lip. There was no way to get out of it now. She knew and he couldn’t keep lying to her if there was any chance of saving the friendship they had. 

“About 6 months ago,” he admitted. 

She nodded, her hand still resting on the handle of the door. 

“Had we…?” she frowned. “Had we broken up?”

He closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as he nodded. 

“Yes, we’d definitely broken up, Audrey,” he said. 

He didn’t need to tell her that while nothing had physically happened with Dr Browne before they’d broken up, hindsight revealed to him that he’d had feelings for Claire long before he acted on them. He wouldn’t realise for years to come that the timing of those feelings for Claire had crossed over with the ones he’d had for Dr Lim. In fact, it would take until he saw Audrey, a baby in her lap and husband by her side, sitting in the crowd at his wedding for him to realise that maybe the feelings he thought he’d had for her, were never really there. 

She accepted his explanation and left without another word, heading downstairs to tell HR that she’d spoken to Dr Melendez and no further action was needed, the complainant must have been mistaken because she knew Melendez was with a patient on Tuesday afternoon. 

When Claire pulled her phone out of her pocket a couple of hours later, after successfully removing kidney stones from a 70-year-old patient, her stomach flipped at the name on her screen. Neil never texted her at work in case someone saw over her shoulder, so she shoved her phone back in her pocket without reading the message and headed straight for an on-call room praying it was empty. 

“Dr Lim knows” is all the message said and she had so many questions. But now wasn’t the time and here wasn’t the place so she ignored the message and knew he’d understand that that meant ‘meet me at my place when you finish.’

He hadn’t even knocked before she swung the door open, pulling him inside without another word, or a kiss on the doorstep. 

“What happened?!” she almost yelled. 

He put his hands on her shoulders, running them up and down her arms to calm her down.

“I think we’re okay,” he nodded. 

But she wasn’t calm and she definitely wasn’t okay. 

“What the hell happened, Neil?! Did you tell her? Did she come to you? Did she see us? Where would she have seen us? What would we have been doing to tip her off?!”

He stepped past her and walked to the kitchen, pulling two glasses from the cupboard and pouring a couple of larger-than-normal glasses of red wine. 

“It’s okay, Claire,” he said handing her one. 

But she put it straight back on the bench, her lips tight and face contorted into a confused frown. Why wouldn’t he just tell her what happened? Arms were thrown everywhere, she was panicking and before she could even realise it, tears were streaming down her cheeks. 

He didn’t want to tell her how Dr Lim found out, because he knew she’d blame herself. 

“Hey, we’re in this together buddy,” she told him. 

So he took a deep breath and explained that the one time they took the plunge to go outside, after six months of hiding behind their apartment doors, was the one time it took for someone to spot them together. He told her he didn’t know who it was, he only knew what they saw. And Audrey knew it too. 

“A tiny kiss,” he breathed. “We were on autopilot. I’m sure it was me that leant in anyway, it’s my fault.”

But Claire had gone silent, knowing all her badgering to just “go for a run” had led to their relationship now being in the spotlight and both of their careers on the line. 

He tried to tell her that he didn’t think Dr Lim would say anything and that they were perfectly safe if they just kept things how they’d been for the last six months and pretended it never happened. But Claire wasn’t convinced. 

“Neil… do you love me?” she said after a while. 

“Of course,” he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

She stopped and looked at him, eyebrows raised and tears still staining her cheeks. He froze realising what he’d just said. 

“I mean.. if.. if you’re, okay with that?” he tried to backtrack. 

There was no taking it back and honestly, he didn’t want to. He knew he meant it, hell he’d even said it out loud before, but never when she was awake. Only on nights he’d come home late and she’d already be curled up in his bed, using up most of the blanket and smelling like raspberry soap and a hint of hospital grade disinfectant. Only on the nights he’d slide into bed beside her and she’d stir only enough to roll over, smile and kiss him softly after a long day. He’d never said it when she was awake enough to hear what he’d said and stare back at him with nothing to say. 

Except now.

“Yeah, of course I’m okay with that,” she smiled. 

He breathed a sigh of relief and watched her, waiting for her to say something back. 

“Do you… is it - is it mutual?” he queried after a moment’s silence. 

“Oh! Oh god yes of course it is!” she smiled, throwing her arms around his neck. “Sorry, of course!”

She kissed his cheeks and nose, before planting her lips on his and kissing him hard. 

“Of course I love you,” she said quietly. 

But when she pulled away she had a serious look on her face. One Neil knew meant something was coming that he didn’t want to have to deal with. 

“Then, do you think maybe it’s time?” she asked. 

He dropped his hands from her waist and took a sip from his glass. 

“I don’t know, Claire,” he said. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eeeeeeep things are happening. 
> 
> Faster than they're happening on the show... I'm in Australia and an episode behind everyone else. So if anything ever actually happens between these two, I'll be the last to know.


	6. An Unnecessary Key

He sat on one of the stools at Claire’s kitchen bench, she leant over from the other side, trying to catch his eyes as he stared at his hands. 

“I don’t think I’m ready for another one of those conversations,” he said. 

She nodded slowly. 

She understood. He’d been through this before, had to prove his relationship to his bosses and listen to gossip in the hallways and break rooms when no one thought he was listening. He’d had his heart broken publicly, twice. And he’d still forced himself to come to work every day, pretending everything was okay until eventually he didn’t have to pretend anymore.

But she loved him and she wanted to scream it from rooftops and let everyone know that this brilliant, smart, loving, handsome man was hers, and only hers. That he’d picked _her_ broken heart and messy life to share, over anyone else’s. That even though he could have had almost anyone in the world, he chose to go home to _her_ each night. That despite the mistakes she’d made and the problems she still carried with her, he picked _Claire_ , not someone else. 

He was quiet for a while and eventually she held his hands in hers, looked him in the eye and kissed him softly, telling him it was okay and that they can have that conversation another time.

“I get it,” she told him. “I love what we have now, I’m happy in our little bubble if you are.”

It was a lie, but he didn’t have to know that. 

And so they had dinner together quietly, making eye contact and smiling at each other every now and then, but while they were physically in Claire’s kitchen, they were each a hundred miles away. A quiet “could you pass me the salt please?” and “of course sweetheart” was exchanged. But the unspoken words left a heavy silence over the two of them and even though they’d finally admitted they loved each other, Claire knew love would ultimately not be enough for her.

He cleared the kitchen and stood to take her hand as they walked to the bedroom. 

“You okay?” he frowned, slipping his hand into hers. 

She smiled and nodded, kissing him as she stood. 

“Yeah. I love you.”

They shared a long hot shower that night, but Claire’s reactions to Neil’s advances weren’t as enthusiastic as they’d normally be. So he gave up, kissing her forehead and squeezing her into a hug before rinsing off. 

“Sorry babe,” she half-smiled, watching him dry off, disappointed. “It’s just been a big day.”

“You don’t have to apologise Claire,” he told her, passing her a towel. 

She snuggled deep into his neck as they climbed into bed not bothering with pyjamas, simply lying together skin to skin. His arm around one shoulder, hers over his chest, their legs intertwined as they often were when they fell asleep. She kissed the skin at the base of his neck and whispered that she loved him as he pulled the blanket over them. And he kissed the top of her head, reminding her that he loved her back.

Their days at work didn’t change over the next few months. She rotated between his service and Andrews’, occasionally scrubbing in with Dr Lim, but they both tried to avoid that at all costs. The idea of Claire’s relationship with Melendez hanging over them in the OR wasn’t exactly high on either surgeon’s list of ideal operating situations. 

He was still trying to figure out who’d seen the two of them kissing in his car almost five months ago, but there wasn’t a single nurse who seemed suspicious of them and none of the other residents had made any snide comments to Claire about him in almost a year.

Her heart still fluttered when he walked into a room and as much as she tried to hide it, her cheeks blushed when he complimented her in front of her peers. She was conscious of not touching her hair whenever she talked to him, but sometimes he just made her so giddy she forgot that as much as she could flirt with her boyfriend, she wasn’t allowed to flirt with her attending surgeon. 

But as six months together slowly became a year, Neil started to feel distant from the woman he’d realised he wanted to be his forever. It was as if the walls Claire had up when they first started seeing each other as friends were slowly rebuilding, brick by brick, day by day. She still told him she loved him and he knew that she meant it. In bed they felt closer than ever and the sexy secrecy of their relationship at work still gave each of them chills when their fingers brushed or they found an excuse for a sneaky kiss in a quiet storeroom. She didn’t stop letting herself into his apartment to cook dinner for him, or come home expecting him to already be asleep in her bed.

But something felt off, and when he asked her to move in with him he suddenly realised why. 

“Claire? Did you hear what I said?” he frowned. 

She looked up from the key she held in her lap and nodded. 

“Yeah, yeah babe I heard you - I just…” she trailed off. 

She placed the key, no different to the one she already had but a sweet gesture nonetheless, on the coffee table and downed the rest of her glass of wine before she turned back to her boyfriend sitting, waiting, next to her on his couch. 

“We’ve been together a YEAR, Neil,” she pointed out. 

“I know… that’s, kind of why I’m asking you to live together.”

“You don’t think it’s a bit weird that we’ve been together a YEAR, rarely spend a night apart and are probably about to move in together… but have never been on an actual, proper date?” she asked. 

Her eyebrows were raised, her lips pursed and Neil’s stomach twisted itself into knots.

“We’ve never been out to dinner together, Neil. Never held hands at the cinema or shared a popcorn and god, I haven’t even met your PARENTS!”

He couldn’t tell her she was wrong, because she was right. 

The last time they’d been out together in public was six months ago when they went for a run and accidentally almost blew everything up. He’d been avoiding this conversation and she’d been waiting for him to bring it up. 

There was no point in trying to interrupt her, or even verbally agreeing with her. He just nodded as she threw her arms around almost yelling, telling him that maybe before she uproots her life and merges it with his pretty permanently, he should take her out for a fucking drink. And that if he really loved her why was he so scared to let anyone else know about it? Was he ashamed of the woman he chose to spend his life with? Did he not want his friends and colleagues or even his parents to know that he was dating the daughter of an addict who was raised on nothing but fear and insecurity? Did he still have feelings for Dr Lim and is that why he didn’t want to parade her around the entire fucking hospital like he did with his ex?

“Claire, no! Fuck no,” he finally interrupted. “What I had with Dr Lim was _nothing_ comparable to this, don’t you ever think that.” 

She stared at him, realising that at some point during her rant she’d started crying and her cheeks were wet and her eyes stung. But finally, she felt like she could breathe again without the weight of silent insecurities crushing her chest. 

“Then why..” she whispered. “Why were you so quick to tell the world that you loved her, but don’t even want anyone to speculate the idea of me?”

Her eyes were red, swollen and sad as Neil reached over and wiped the tears from her cheeks. She started crying again, and he could feel her softly shaking with each sob when he pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered over and over, kissing the top of her head and squeezing her tighter each time she sniffed. 

“I didn’t know this was such a big problem for you, Claire,” he told her. 

And as much as he wanted to make her feel better right now, he knew their fight wasn’t over, because despite knowing he was so madly in love with her that he didn’t think this relationship would ever end, he wasn’t ready to take it to the hospital.

Eventually her breaths evened out and she lifted her head from his chest, smiling sadly at him with tear stained cheeks and those incredible grey eyes he fell in love with. She was so beautiful and seeing her so upset damn near killed him, knowing the words he was about to say weren’t going to make her smile. 

“I understand Claire, I really do,” he said softly, brushing the curls from her face and holding her cheeks in his hand. “But I just can’t… I don’t want to ruin this by letting everyone else in.”

She sat up properly and slid off his lap onto the other cushion on the couch, frowning, confused as he spoke. 

He told her he loved her and that recently he’d come to realise he probably always would, and that he couldn’t see a future without her in it, but he didn’t want work to come in between them. Maybe when she’s finished her residency? he suggested, trying to frame his argument as if he were trying to protect her from problems so early in her career. 

“Don’t make it about me, Neil,” she choked. “I’m ready, I want this to be permanent and I just want to be able to live our lives properly. Not hidden away for another 20, 30, 50 years!”

“But if we say something now, you’ll always be the surgeon that got through her residency by sleeping with her attending!” he argued. 

She took a sharp breath in, his words piercing the air around them. 

“Do you honestly think so little of my skills as a surgeon?” she scowled. 

“No, Claire, of course not! You know I think you’re brilliant!”

“Then why won’t anyone else? Why won’t anyone else see through my sex life and be able to see me as the surgeon who got through her residency by being a good fucking surgeon?”

He knew she was right, of course people would gossip and awful things would probably be said about both of them behind their backs, but Claire’s ability to diagnose and operate would be obvious to anyone and it would be as clear to them as it was to him that she’s a good fucking surgeon, and the person she chooses to share a bed with has nothing to do with that. 

“They will,” he conceded. “Everyone can already see how brilliant you are, it’s not just me being biased.”

“Then what is it, Neil?! Because I’m done hiding this. I’m done pretending that my life outside of the hospital is boring, because I never go out for drinks with the other residents and I never have stories to tell about terrible dates I’ve been on and I never get to go anywhere or do anything because the places I want to go and things I want to do, I want to share with you - but I can’t!”

She wasn’t finished. So he didn’t try to interrupt her. 

“Morgan is constantly telling me I need to ‘get out more’ and Park keeps trying to convince me to ‘join tinder’ and find myself a boyfriend. They’re always trying to set me up with nurses or other doctors and I can’t tell them to stop and I can’t tell them that I’ve already found the love of my life! And if I have to sit and listen to another conversation between scrub nurses fighting over who should get to ‘bang Dr Melendez’ I’m probably going to punch one of them.

“I can’t tell them to all to stop, Neil and I’m tired of it. We’ve both decided this is it for us, so why can’t we just start living our lives properly?” 

Every one of her words felt like another punch to the stomach. He hated that he was doing this to her but he was just _so_ scared. Because every time he thought he’d found someone he really, truly loved, they broke his heart in the most public and brutal way. Jessica was supposed to be his wife, the mother to his children - until she wasn’t. And everyone knew. Everyone knew it when the hospital’s golden couple split and she moved away, leaving him alone to pretend that everything was okay until eventually it was. 

And hooking up with Audrey wasn’t necessarily a mistake, but god he wished they’d kept it to themselves for just a little bit longer. Maybe then they would have figured out what was going on between them, before they let the hospital speculate about it for them. Maybe they would have dated and broken up behind closed doors and no one would have been the wiser. As much as he thought he loved her at the time, they were never really meant for each other and all they did was make things worse and more complicated for themselves by involving HR and making out in the fucking emergency room. 

The common denominator in the eventual end of each of his most serious relationships was St Bonaventure Hospital. This thing he had with Claire was too special to put in the same category and the idea of taking it to work ruined him, because work had ultimately been there for the ruining of each of the last ‘something specials’ he’d had. 

“I don’t want to lose you, okay?” he said quietly. 

She looked at him, confused by the hurt on his face and the seriousness of his tone. 

“Lose me? By making our relationship public? Neil, losing me is the opposite of what I’m asking.”

He lifted his gaze from his hands in his lap to meet her concerned eyes. 

“But it is,” he told her. “That hospital, it just takes everything away.”

She still couldn’t figure out what he was getting at and her frustration with his riddles was honestly reaching boiling point for her. She loved the secrecy of their romance at first, the sneaky flirting and the waiting all day to finally pounce on each other. But it was exhausting, having to constantly be ‘on’ all the time, conscious of how she talked to him, looked at him and touched him, having to stop herself from gravitating towards him in groups or pulling him into a hug after watching him tell a parent he couldn’t save their kid. She wanted to be able to relax around her boyfriend and focus on her job, not her subconscious.

“Neil…” she started, not sure if she really wanted to say the words in her head out loud. “I think I’m starting to get to a point where… We need to either declare it, or end it.”

He wasn’t expecting that. 

“Claire…” 

Her heart shattered as he looked at her, pleading with tears filling his eyes. She hated that she was offering an ultimatum, but she’d been trying to be understanding for 6 months now and she was tired. All she’d ever wanted was a love that felt like theirs, so it wasn’t fair that she had to pretend it didn’t exist. 

“Claire, losing you is the last thing I want. I can’t do that, I need you.”

He was almost panicking now. This wasn’t how he’d envisioned this night. He thought he'd cook her dinner, pour her a glass of wine and present her with a key she already had, before convincing her to follow him to the bedroom where he’d show her that he’d cleared more than half of the wardrobe for her. And while she stood, marvelling at his work, he’d wrap his arms around her waist from behind and pepper soft kisses on her neck before she’d turn around in his arms and kiss him back.

But he hadn’t even been able to tell her about the wardrobe. 

She took his hands in hers, bringing them to her lips and kissed his fingers softly. 

“And I don’t want to go, but I’m tired of it Neil.”

The crease lines across his forehead deepened as he looked into her eyes, tears spilling down his cheeks. She’s only seen him cry a handful of times and it crushed her that she was the reason for these ones. He didn’t want to admit to her that he was scared their relationship wouldn’t be able to survive the scrutiny. He didn’t want to tell her that he was terrified this relationship would end up like all his others. And he certainly didn’t want to tell that he really did worry about what people would think of the both of them; he an attending surgeon who _clearly_ had a type and couldn’t keep it in his pants in the corridors of the hospital, and she a flirty resident with an old, albeit once-upon-a-time well deserved reputation, who slept her way through her residency.

But he did tell her all those things. He had to, because he couldn’t lose her.

And he added that despite all of his fears, his greatest one was letting her walk away, and so if going public with their relationship meant keeping her around, then he would do it. Because frankly, he would do anything for her. 

So when she finally accepted the key that she didn’t need and he led her to his bedroom where there was more than enough space cleared out in the closet for her things, she smiled as he kissed her neck from behind and turned to face him quicker than he’d expected. 

He rested his hands on her waist as her fingers traced lines up his chest, to the back of his neck, dipping into the top of his t-shirt and leaving goosebumps over his skin. He smiled into the kiss and she caught him off guard when she took the opportunity to run her tongue over his bottom lip, deepening their kisses and eliciting a soft, surprised moan from Neil as his grip on her tightened. His hands drifted from her waist to one on the small of her back, pulling her closer and the other running up her side, brushing past the her breast as he cupped her cheek. But she knew what he was getting at and with the weight of the last six months of stress finally lifted, she wanted it as much as she could start to feel that he did too. So she gently pulled on the hand that was resting on her cheek until he got the idea and gently squeezed her over her clothes. 

She’d blown his confidence a little that night and she knew she’d have to make up for it by taking the lead for a while. The slow, albeit loving, nature of their interaction wasn’t doing it for her as the spark in her stomach quickly became a full blown fire and she raked her fingers through his hair, pulling him closer and shuffling her hips against his ever so slightly. 

“Claire-” he breathed, but he couldn’t find any other words. 

Her fingers drifted from his hair to his neck, down his chest and to the hem of his t-shirt, which he willingly let her pull off. 

“Damn,” she breathed, taking a moment to eye her half naked boyfriend. 

Their lips were only apart for a second when he lifted his arms for her, before they crashed back together with a sudden passion neither of them had realised had been missing for some time. It wasn’t long before she’d unbuckled his belt too, watching his jeans drop to the floor and letting her hand slide down his chest and under the waistband of his boxers. 

But not be outdone, Neil almost tore Claire’s clothes off her, eager to dot kisses further down her neck, to her chest before eventually, after much, almost desperate, encouragement from Claire, his tongue circled one nipple while his fingers played with the other. He pretended the gasp that escaped her lips didn’t make him want to push her back onto the bed and finish the job right then, because it did, but he had much more work to do before that.


	7. All Over Your Faces

“A year?” Dr Glassman frowned. 

Neil smiled and nodded as Claire let out a soft laugh and said “Yes.” 

They were sat opposite the hospital’s president in the office he rarely used, except for when Doctors told him they had something serious they had to talk about. 

He knew as soon as he saw them walk into the clinic together they were going to finally admit there was something going on between the resident and the attending, but he’d been caught off guard by the revelation he’d been so slow to catch on. 

“Like 12 whole months, a year?” Glassman pressed. 

“Yes sir,” Neil nodded. “We wanted to make sure we knew what we were doing first.”

“So this is a pretty permanent situation then?”

Claire jumped in first and told the President she hadn’t been so sure of something since she’d decided to study medicine. 

“And we wouldn’t be coming to you if it wasn’t something we felt was worth all of the trouble for you, sir,” she blurted out. 

Dr Glassman laughed. 

“If only this was the worst of my troubles at this hospital.”

He explained the Claire would likely have to be taken off of Melendez’s rotation, at least until people were used to the two of them together and that they’d still have to be subtle around the hospital. But the couple had the president’s blessing and if they had any issues with HR then they were to send them his way. 

“You hid it well,” Dr Glassman smiled. “I’d only assumed for the last couple of weeks.”

They’d taken a week or so after finally agreeing to go public to decide how they’d handle the situation. Claire insisted she be the one to tell the other residents and by the time they figured everything out, Neil was more eager than she was to finally burst the bubble they’d been living in together for a year. 

He was dreading the look on the woman in HR’s face when he knocked on the door for the third time to declare an in-house romance. But eventually he decided that he didn’t care what she thought or said to other staff, because he really, really liked the idea of being able to hold Claire’s hand at lunch. Drive to work together. Flirt in the hallway and show her off at galas. He couldn’t wait to be able to text her just to say “I love you” throughout the day and not worry about who was reading her messages over her shoulder. He wanted to be able to hold her tight and wipe her tears and kiss her forehead when she was falling apart in the break room after telling a parent they weren’t able to save their daughter.

But the conversation on the upper floor of the hospital didn’t go the way he’d expected. 

After Claire had left the room and he sat opposite her, alone, ready to be questioned about his motives as Claire’s superior, the woman from HR just smiled. 

“It’s all over your faces Neil,” she said. “It’s different, I can tell.” 

He couldn’t help himself and erupted in laughter, the stress he’d put on himself, his relationship and his girlfriend - all for HR to look at him and tell him that everything was going to be okay.

“Look after her,” she said, signing her name to the piece of paper on her desk and motioning for the doctor to leave the room. 

He returned to his office, unable to wipe the smile from his face or calm the bounce in his step and waited for Claire to finish her one-on-one meeting. 

Dr Lim was standing in his office when Claire skipped down to tell him that she too, had been given the all clear. 

She approached the door slowly, unsure if she was interrupting something, waiting for Neil to wave her in, a grin matching hers on his face. 

“Congratulations,” Audrey smiled as Claire stepped into Dr. Melendez’s office. 

If she thought she couldn’t have smiled any wider before, she was wrong. She let out a high pitched “thanks” as she turned from her boss to her boyfriend and gave him a thumbs up. 

“We’re clear, baby,” she said excitedly. 

Neil stood from behind his desk and without fear met her in the middle of the room, grabbed her face in his hands and kissed her hard, taking in the moment he could finally kiss her outside of their apartment without caring who saw. He kept his arm around her waist as he turned back to Dr Lim, still standing silently in the corner of the office. 

“We’ll keep it clean at work, Audrey, I swear,” he said. 

She only laughed and rolled her eyes, nodding. 

“I know. I’m glad it worked out, you two.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm so sorry this last chapter took so long. I've been pretty uninspired since that ridiculous season finale. It was just straight up dumb and I'm a bit mad at the show and by extension, the characters. It doesn't make sense, it was such a stupid direction to take the show and I'm not convinced I'll be around for season 4 tbh. The whole reason I loved The Good Doctor was that it wasn't over dramatic and badly written like some other medical dramas out there, so I'm pretty disappointed. More than just your usual "sad about a character's death" feeling - now I'm just sad the whole show has taken this weird (and stupid) turn.
> 
> Please join me in pretending the whole last episode never happened. 
> 
> This is the last chapter for this one, but I've got a few ideas for little drabbles and one shots up my sleeve.


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